Off to Anda

the next morning Pat walked me to the Jeepney like a little girl’s first day at school. ....me, getting on the Jeepney

i am officially ‘cutting my apron strings’, leaving the comforts and ‘knowns’ of being with Kevin, Nadia, Pat, and Viana. now, the ‘adventure’ begins… all the ‘unknowns’

i’m leaving Panglao, and headed to Anda, that peninsula-like land jutting out on the east coast of Bohol on the map below

this is an unintended stop, sort of.    i’d read about it but really wasn’t planning on going there.    but Kevin and Nadia had been there and said the water was beautiful, and the reviews said the snorkeling was good from shore …. and it is 'kind of' on my way to my next ‘planned’ destination.

to my surprise, i was the first one on the Jeepney …i had my choice of seats.

 
it filled up to capacity quickly and in about an hour i was at the Dao Terminal in Tagbilaran, looking for the shiny ‘big air-conditioned bus' to Anda.   after being pointed in the wrong direction twice, i finally found the correct bus.   the attendant said the bus would leave at 10am…  i had an hour to wait.    there was a non-Philippina girl standing there with backpacks. we started a conversation:   Celine from France, touring for 9 months, solo, and on her way to Anda ! it was easy to become ‘best friends’.   we stashed our bags and walked to the big ‘mall’.    it’s like our malls … a huge building, but it has everything inside: meat markets, groceries, pharmacy, tech shops, food stalls, and banks.   unlike our malls, the stores are not all around the edges, ...they are everywhere, and it’s quite confusing to me.    Celine used the ATM and we returned to the bus.   stored our bags underneath, and picked our seats, ...across from each other ...both by the window, hoping not many people would show up and we'd have the whole row to ourselves.   oh, i forgot to say … no, there is no A/C, and it’s not a plush-non-stop bus like i was ‘envisioning’ … like the ones they have in Belize/Honduras.    they pack people on these buses just like they do the Jeepneys, although they don’t stop for every Tom Dick & Harry on the road.   they do stop at the towns along the way… load ‘em up !

in a couple plus hours we were in Anda.   i went with Celine to her place, R&S SeaSide in town.  got something to eat, then looked for a tricycle to take me out to 1 Peace Guesthouse.    i was told i should be able to get a tricycle for 50pesos, but when i told them where i was going, everyone wanted 200pesos.    i discovered that my new home is quite a way from the main road, and down a rocky rutted dirt road that no one wants to travel.    Celine and i finally found a man who agreed to take me for 150pesos.   i usually try to make conversation and ask their name. it’s ALWAYS something i don’t understand, much less remember…. never a Bob or Bill.     his name started with an ’S-something' …. i asked him if i could call him Mr. Salsa :)      as we turned down my road, i understood why everyone charges more to go there, and i don’t blame them.    i could almost walk it faster than the tricycle was able to go... but NOT carrying my even 'down-sized' luggage.

1 Peace GuestHouse is right on the water

the owner and most of the people there were French. i did not feel welcomed.   the water looked calm, so i went to my private fan room w/shower, changed my clothes and went snorkeling.   i did get instruction on which way to go to see the turtles.

the coral on the way out to the wall was nice, although a bit deeper than i prefer. the StagHorn Corals out at the wall were huge and in great shape. i haven’t seen hard corals like that for a long time. that was good to see.    they are not very colorful, but they are the ones that take a long long time to grow.

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there was this bright red brain coral that you couldn’t miss

i got familiar, and even saw a turtle with lots of barnacles on it’s shell … out in the blue

on the way back in, i discovered some coral heads that weren’t in too deep of water and i was able to entertain myself quite well. funny, when i was in Alona, one of the Dive Masters asked me if i’d ever seen a 6-armed Sea Star. i said i had not … and now i see one. it’s called a Luzon Sea Star. Luzon is an area in the Philippines

met a new fish. this is a KeyHole AngelFish… appropriately named.

when i was at Cabilao Island, and also back at Alona, i had very brief encounters with a new AngelFish, but couldn’t get a photo. this day i was luckier, it is a Vermiculated AngelFish

i never realized they had blue lips until i saw these photos ~

that evening we had a Korean BBQ.   This is the way they do dinner here. they prepare the meal ‘family style’ and we all sit down and eat together. this is a great idea, but it really could be improved upon. before eating they could introduce the staff and ‘welcome’ anyone new from that day, for instance, me; and then go quickly around the table with name/from…whatever. when i left 4 nights later, i was just beginning to figure out who was who in this ‘family’.

the Korean BBQ was great!     The guys are really good cooks!    they had marinated beef and pork, then bowls of onions, garlic, peppers, and a ‘cooker’ at each end of the table. so we cooked our own food. everyone put food on, and took some off and put some more on. they had large cabbage-type leaves to roll your food in. it was a lot of fun. of course there was also a large bowl of rice, a potato salad, and a wonderful Korean sauce of some sort. it was delicious!

they also told me this was a special occasion, and not to expect this every night ;)

one huge complaint…. many many smokers ~ …. they all smoked outside, just outside the eating area, so the smoke always found it’s way inside …. and the only very-weak internet modem was outside ....with the smokers :)

the other complaint was the very weak WiFi, … when it was working…which was only the first day of my 4-day stay. they kept leaving it out over night, and it rained; so it spent the rest of the days in a bag of rice.    not much help for anyone wanting WiFi :(



the next day, my friend Celine came out to spend the day snorkeling with me.    we saw several turtles just cruising the wall

and another one eating down in the coral, that i dove down to get a closer look

because of yesterday, i was aware there was quite a current again, and it was going the opposite direction from yesterday, and AWAY from the resort.    when there is a current, and you are going WITH it, it’s easy to get caught up in the ease of snorkeling and not realize it.   i mentioned it to Celine; but she kept snorkeling with it.    i finally joked we were going to end up in the town if we kept going.      she agreed we should turn around and head back.   it’s then you realize just how strong the current is.     it took us over 30min of hard strong swimming to get back to shore.     we weren’t in any danger, ...because we are both strong women :) …. but it was NOT fun.


as we got into shallower water i found several of these Black Velutinids, ..i like the subtle blue random lines and they have kind of an elephant turned up nose

that was the end of the snorkeling for the day; what to do?    we decided to go to Cabagnow Cave closer to town. Celine suggested we should walk…, it took us over an hour to get there, with a few rain sprinkles on the way.    by that time a cool fresh-water dip sounded really refreshing.    there was a guy at the gate that wanted 2pesos to pass by him.   and a guy at the Cave that said we could look for free, but if we wanted to go in, it would cost 50pesos each.    really?     none of the info said anything about paying…. we talked him down to 50pesos for both of us.

it was a 12’ jump, we chose the ladder, ….i should have jumped.
it was cool and clear and refreshing—just what we needed.

about this time i realized i had left my camera, in a tub of rinse water back in my room.  that was a HUGE error on my part.  it is important to rinse the saltwater from the camera … but not to leave it in there for hours!   i texted Oliver back at 1peace and he got into my room and rescued it for me.    for that i am eternally grateful ! …i get so disgusted with myself for doing things like that :(

so now i could relax, and we walked another 20min into town and walked around. there is not much to the town of Anda.   we stopped at Coco Loco and decided to split their famous Coconut Burger since we weren’t sure it would be as good as they said it would be. we ended up splitting another one … they were right.   All natural ground pressed coconut, grilled, on a bun with tomato/onion … add cheese or bacon if you want.    who would have thought ?

my friend Celine and me

Celine left the next morning for Camiguin Island … another island i wanted to go to last year … i almost went with her … but i had already booked my next ‘landing’ ….(unprecedented for me; that’s why i don’t like to book ahead)

the next day i walked 10min out to the main road, and grabbed a tricycle to take me down the road to Blue Dive Resort, too high priced for me to stay there.    i told them i would like to eat lunch, but first to snorkel. they were very nice and didn’t treat me like a ‘street person’.    the reef out front is said to be the best for snorkeling the most beautiful corals, which is why i am here.

the resort sits way above the sea, lots of steps down to the water.    there was a guard on the way down that pointed out the bouy and warned me of currents.     right, i am aware of currents.

‘they’ are correct, there are a lot of beautiful soft corals covering a very large distance.   however, it was far too deep for my ‘perfect' snorkeling experience.  here are a few photos of the beautiful soft corals. you can see that they are far below me.

i went down to get a little closer to these ... they are really pretty !

i’ve shown these RazorFish that swim upside down before, but it also shows the coral that is endless.

this must be the ‘red-headed stepchild’ of these corals :)

in here among these corals somewhere, is a little BoxFish that i was chasing. unfortunately, he was not in the mood for a ‘photo shoot'

this White Spotted PufferFish wasn’t in too deep a water for free diving down to get a photo.    he checked me out

then got even closer so i could see his 4 little tiny teeth :)

i took a fresh water rinse and enjoyed my lunch by the pool. they were very nice and invited me back :)

i walked up to the road, hailed a tricycle and then walked the back down the road to 1 peace

another nice evening meal of 3 huge tuna, wonderful baked squash, and of course rice. also had ice cream for dessert !

since the WiFi was basically non-existent, i learned that with my Philippine sim card, i can buy some ‘data' time and use it as a hot spot for my laptop. in order to get a strong enough signal to do this, however, you needed to be 2 floors up there

which further ‘isolates’ you from the group … at least no smokers were up there.       and, it took me awhile to figure it out … but eventually it worked !   i was even able to Skype my Sister with a great connection.    Nice to hear voices from home !


my last day in Anda.   i didn’t feel like i had done the house reef ‘justice', so i tried to make up for that today.


new fish of the day.   i found these SpotGill Cardinal Fish.    they were everywhere.

with those huge bright blue eyes, i don’t know why i’ve never seen them before.    i need to be more observant of the smaller fishes.

one of my favorite fishes from last year, a large Blue Spiked UnicornFish was darting around like a crazy person/fish.      he was just tempting me to try to photo him.    this was the best i could do…i consider him the winner.    those 2 blue spots near his tail really are ‘spines’ and stick out. 

i ventured out to the wall and was rewarded with 2 turtles swimming out in the blue.   this was as close as i got

i dove way down for this Yellow Cigar Wrasse - Intermediate Phase … the adults are just gray-brown and not as ‘pretty’

as a comparison, as to just how different a reef can be from one location to another of maybe 1/4mile away.
this is in front of 1peace guesthouse… which is good; but pales in comparison from what is just down the road at Blue Star.     so it pays to do research and find out where the ‘best’ snorkeling is.     not always an easy task :(

this anemone caught my eye because of it’s unusual striping … home to yet another family of Nemos

on my way back in, i saw this anemone that sometimes is home to shrimp and crabs and decided to stay around a while to see if anyone showed up.     sure enough, this little Spotted Porcelain Crab was there busily working away … at something sticky

he looks rather fierce with his claws wide open !

when a group of people have been together for awhile, it is sometimes hard to ‘break in’, and i’d not felt comfortable here (that’s my ‘introvert’ showing).    today some of that group left and others arrived … since they were new to the ‘family’ they didn't know anyone either, were friendly and dinner was more enjoyable.

so… the end of my Anda stay, and the end of the island of Bohol for this time.

i needed to leave early in the morning, and i was having trouble finding someone who wanted to drive down our rocky drive and pick me up at 6:30am, and take me to Guildulman to get a bus-van.      my reliable Mr Salsa tricycle driver, wanted too many pesos, i assumed he didn’t really want to get up that early and i can’t blame him.

the evening before i left i was commenting on my dilemma to the man who ran the ‘Activity Tours' for 1peace.    he offered to get up and take me !   he used to be a FireFighter and Medic in California and 6am 'was nothing’ for him. WoW ...sorry i didn’t meet him earlier.…

good bye to Anda

on to Southern Leyte tomorrow morning.

Last of Alona Beach

Kevin’s friends from Sweden were visiting and we went to dinner with them one night, and cocktails the next. nice people. we walked across the street to Alona Tropical Resort to walk down to the beach … they have their garden/pool area all lit up… i was magical ...    that is Nadia and Viana (with me--in case you've forgotten what i look like).

this is Alona Beach, just a 10 minute walk from Kevin and Nadia's … lots and lots of boats…and people…and horns :) i am sure a pretty fun place if you are in your 20s :)      my 'secret' snorkel place is way down the at the other end of this crazy busy beach.

i don’t think i’ve ever seen a sunset here in Tawala/Alona … mostly because it faces more south. but i made an effort one evening to go down and catch some of the after-set sky.

we are still having our share of clouds, and rain almost everyday…but not an all-day rain, everyday. it’s a joke here now, everytime i look out and see the sun shining and decide to go snorkeling or for a walk … it starts raining.

today was no different. i got out rather early. if we are going to see any sun, it will be in the morning.

i had a brief encounter with a new AngelFish in Cabilao, but was unable to get a photo. but i found a semi-willing subject today. it is a Verticulated AngelFish

i was seeing the same ‘old faces’, but looking for something new, when i came across this small reef, with this gold Anemone on it. it was kind of unusual, so i was just examining it when i noticed something moving.  

this is a Peacock Tail Anemone Shrimp … pretty tail … and you can see through it ! look closely and you can see the tiny white Anemone parts right through it !       i saw one of these last year in Thailand too.

here you can see the orange part of the Anemone through it … almost magnified

you might not have noticed, but here you can see it’s see-through claws with purple bands

WoW … that was pretty cool


i went out to the ‘wall’ and looked over the edge. i saw this little Yellow Box Fish - Juvenile … the was so cute !

i had to dive quite deep, and hold my breath a long time, so to make my efforts worthwhile; you’ll have to endure another photo of it’s sweet face.    i love their lips :)   

the older and adult phase of this fish is not near as yellow and pretty.

New Fish: i spent the next hour and over 100 shots trying to take a photo of this RockMover Wrasse - Juvenile. he was so busy moving and hiding from seaweed to grass and algae. i refused to leave :) beautiful markings around his eyes. i actually have seen the adults MOVE rocks in their search for food !

i saw 2 of these Orange Tail FileFish a week or so ago here. i think the were doing some mating ritual because their colors were iridescent, they were really trying to impress each other…certainly they impressed me. still pretty now though.

i think this is the 3rd Spanish Dancer Egg Ribbon i have seen since i’ve been here…i think that’s good news. no sign of the Dancer though.

i was on my way back in when i could hardly miss this bright BLUE fish …. it is a Juvenile - Semi-Circle AngelFish. i’ve seen the adult several times (see Cabilao post); but have never seen the Juvenile

Pat had ordered a Mask and Snorkel, and it finally arrived. she had snorkeled once before; but ...she never snorkeled with ‘the master’ :) first challenge: the clip that holds the snorkel to the mask broke. thankfully, i had a hair-band in my pocket so i was able to secure it. if not, that would have been the end of that snorkel. she was a bit uncomfortable at the beginning, so we took it slow; but she stayed with it, and remained calm. eventually i coaxed her out into deeper water and finally to some pretty corals. she was amazed at how much she liked it. she said this time was much more fun than before and she just wanted to do it again and again. she said she understood why i liked it so much. yeah…another snorkel convert !



this is a Black Durgeon, or a Black TriggerFish. they are really hard to get close to; i have made many unsuccessful attempts. they look black from a distance, but in reality they have a beautiful pattern on their face. in Hawaii it is called a Humuhumu'ele'ele. i took some video of it, ….twice. the second time i got amazingly close to it, but…. i didn’t have the video turned on… this is a clip from the other video

i’ve never seen this color of Anemone …. i’ve seen green anemones, but i’ve never seen the green bottom…what a great color of green But the Nemos still like it

earlier i posted a photo of a ReefTop PipeFish. like the SeaHorse, the males carry the babies. i started doing more research on this and learned that there may be a ‘darker’ side to this story. research has been done that discovers that sometimes the male PipeFish actually cannabilizes his babies, using their nutrients to fuel his own body ... if he gets pregnant soon after his last pregnancy, and/or if the female was small and not so ‘desirable’. this would ensure his survival and thus giving better chances for the next pregnancy. i thought this was pretty interesting. the article said it was also possible to tell when the male was pregnant.


so the next time i saw a PipeFish, i looked more closely … sure enough, the first one i saw looked very pregnant.

before birth you can actually see the little perfect miniatures in there. …but, i am sorry that doesn’t show in my photos :(

pretty cool, huh ?


the last day i was there i decided to do a dive with my favorite dive shop, Go Scuba. these are the guys i dove with last year and ‘bugged’ them almost everyday using their books to ID fishes, so they remembered me :) we did a dive not too far off shore from Alona Beach and it was a great.   nice and calm, good visibility, and my guide Bibong, was great at finding things to look at. things i would have never seen on my own.   since i was diving i was using the GoPro … i need to get a lot more experience using it.   i am till not happy with the results; but i have learned how to 'capture' a 'still photo' from a frame on the video.   so i can show you a few new things i saw.

it works like this:   the Dive Master points things out to you, and usually as a hand-signal of what it is. then he moves a little and makes sure everyone can get a photo. when it cam to my turn, i couldn’t see what i was supposed to be looking at. so, i was filming about a foot below these Ringed PipeFish, somehow i managed to get part of them :( check out that distinctive defining tail, red with white in the middle.


these Purple Anthias are real pretty with their purple and yellow and trailing fins. i noticed them all on my own :)

another new one, a Black Striped AngelFish

these bright blue fishes peppered the white sand going up to the shallows.

a little Black and White Wrasse—Juvenile was scurrying across the open to safety

but THIS mystery is still unsolved. i have made no adjustments to this photo. it really looked like it was on fire, on the floor of the sea.

the other amazing thing i saw was an Electric File Clam. again, Bibong had to show us… it was tucked back in a small (maybe 1x1 foot) ‘cave’. it actually had electric wire-like things shooting out from it… we did not have a flashlight and it was just too dark in there to see anything ..but man it was shocking ! you just have to believe me :)


and in the shallows as we were finishing up, he pointed to these ‘blades of wide grass’ … but no, they are Robust Ghost PipeFishes. totally look like floating grass !

i took the ‘family’ out to dinner before i left, as a thank you for all their kindness and generosity in welcoming me into their family.    the girls:   Pat, Me, Nadia